SGUK Outdoor Skills Challenge 35: Make and Follow Trail Markers

There’s a useful difference between walking a route someone else has marked and being able to mark a route for somebody to follow. The second takes a little more thought. You need to decide where a marker belongs, make its meaning clear and check that the next person can follow it without having to guess.

Trail marking is a practical outdoor skill used in navigation exercises, woodland activities, bushcraft sessions and organised walks. It teaches you to pay attention to the ground, recognise useful landmarks and think about how another person sees a route.

For this challenge, you are going to learn how to make trail markers and actually use them. You’ll create a short, temporary trail using reusable markers, then follow it yourself or ask someone else to try it. The aim is to make a trail that’s easy to understand, not to leave signs behind in the countryside. Every marker should be collected at the end.

Your Challenge

Create a trail of at least eight temporary markers along a suitable route, then follow the trail from beginning to end.

Your markers should guide someone through the route, make changes of direction clear and provide enough reassurance that they know they’re still following the correct trail. You’ll also test whether the markers work as intended and improve any that cause confusion.

Choose a safe area where you have permission to set up the exercise. A private garden, suitable woodland activity area or designated outdoor training space is ideal. Don’t mark a public footpath or an unfamiliar route in a way that could mislead other walkers.

What You’ll Need

• At least eight reusable trail markers, such as small coloured flags or marker cards.
• A notebook and pencil to record the route.
• A map or simple sketch of the area, if useful.
• A small bag for collecting every marker afterwards.
• A walking partner, if you want someone else to test your trail.

Your markers should be visible without being excessively large or intrusive. Reusable markers are preferable to plastic tape, chalk, paint or anything that could leave a mark or become litter.

If you’re using a woodland area, avoid attaching anything to trees, breaking branches or disturbing plants. Place markers only where permitted, and keep them clear of paths and places where people could trip over them.

Take the Challenge

Step 1: Choose your route

Find a route that’s long enough to provide a little variety but short enough to manage easily. Around 100–300 metres is a useful starting point, although the distance matters less than the quality of the route.

Look for natural features that help you make decisions: a bend in a path, a junction, a distinctive tree, a change in the ground or a clearly visible landmark. You want to create a route that tests observation rather than one that depends on someone spotting a marker every few steps.

Walk the route first without placing anything. Decide where you want the trail to go, where someone might become uncertain and where a marker would be most useful.

Avoid steep slopes, slippery ground, water edges, roads and areas where someone following the trail might wander into danger. The route should be straightforward to walk, even if finding the next marker requires concentration.

Step 2: Decide what your markers mean

Before laying out the trail, establish a simple system. Your markers need to communicate consistently, otherwise people will spend their time guessing what each arrangement means.

For this challenge, use the following system:

• One marker: continue in the direction indicated by its position or arrow.
• Two markers together: a decision point, such as a junction or change of direction.
• A marker placed beyond a turn: reassurance that the person has taken the correct route.
• A clearly marked finish: the end of the trail.

If your marker cards have arrows, use them to indicate the direction of travel. If they don’t, place them where the intended direction is obvious from the approach.

Don’t rely on colour alone to convey meaning. Someone may have difficulty distinguishing colours, or the light may make them less obvious. Shape, position and consistent placement help make your system easier to follow.

Keep your system simple. A trail with too many symbols or complicated rules is harder to follow than one that uses a few clear conventions throughout.

Step 3: Lay the trail

Start at a recognisable point and place your first marker where someone beginning the exercise will notice it. Continue along the route, adding markers at suitable intervals and wherever a decision needs to be made.

Straight sections don’t need a marker every few metres. If the path is obvious, place the next marker far enough ahead to maintain interest without making the person following it uncertain for too long.

Corners and junctions need more thought. A marker placed before a turn can warn someone that a decision is approaching, while another just beyond the turn confirms they’ve gone the right way. On a short training trail, this is particularly useful because it teaches the difference between a direction marker and a reassurance marker.

At each placement, walk back to the previous marker and check that you can see the next one. Then stand at the new marker and look ahead. Can you identify where the trail continues?

This simple check makes a considerable difference. A marker may seem obvious when you’re standing beside it, but disappear into the background when viewed from a distance or from a different angle.

Don’t place markers where someone must step into vegetation, cross a barrier or leave a permitted path to find them. If a location is unsuitable, change the route.

Step 4: Follow the trail

Once you’ve laid the trail, return to the starting point and follow it as though you hadn’t created it yourself. Better still, ask a walking partner to follow it without telling them where you’ve placed each marker.

Approach each marker, identify its meaning and look for the next one before moving on. At junctions, pause long enough to make a deliberate decision rather than rushing towards the most obvious-looking path.

Pay attention to how the trail guides you. Are the turns clear? Do you have enough reassurance after changing direction? Are there places where you could easily walk past a marker?

If you lose sight of the next marker, don’t wander randomly through the area looking for it. Return to the last marker you positively identified and search from there. This is a useful navigation habit: when you’re uncertain, go back to a known point rather than allowing a small mistake to grow into a larger one.

If your partner chooses the wrong direction, don’t immediately tell them where to go. Ask what they can see and why they made that choice. Their explanation may reveal that your marker was poorly positioned or that its meaning wasn’t as clear as you thought.

Step 5: Test the difficult sections

A trail that works when you know where everything is may not work for someone seeing it for the first time.

Pay particular attention to junctions, bends and sections where the next marker is partly hidden. Check that your markers aren’t confused with ordinary objects in the surroundings, and make sure a person approaching from the correct direction can distinguish them from the background.

Consider what happens if someone walks past a marker. Is there enough information to realise they’ve missed a turn? Would they be able to retrace their steps without difficulty?

You don’t need to make the trail impossible to miss. Some observation is part of the exercise. The aim is to avoid ambiguity that could lead someone away from the intended route or into an unsafe area.

Make adjustments where necessary and repeat the difficult sections. You’ll learn more from improving three confusing markers than from adding another twenty to a trail that already works.

Step 6: Retrieve every marker

When the exercise is finished, walk the entire route and collect all your markers. Check junctions, corners and the finish point carefully so that nothing is left behind.

Don’t leave markers for another day or assume somebody else will remove them. Temporary trail marking is only temporary if you take responsibility for clearing it away.

Avoid building cairns, breaking vegetation or scratching arrows into trees. Those methods can damage the environment, create misleading signs or leave traces for other walkers to interpret incorrectly. The Countryside Code provides further guidance on respecting the countryside and leaving it as you found it.

Safety

Carry out the exercise in daylight, use a route appropriate for everyone taking part and make sure the person following the trail knows the boundaries of the activity area.

Never use markers to direct people towards hazards, private land, roads or water. Don’t imitate official public footpath signs or interfere with existing waymarks. If you’re using land managed by someone else, obtain permission before setting up the trail.

Check Your Results

A successful trail should be straightforward to follow without someone needing constant hints.

Ask yourself whether every marker could be seen from the previous one, whether turns were clear and whether the system meant the same thing throughout the route. If another person followed the trail, note where they hesitated or made a wrong turn.

The most useful test is whether you can explain why each marker is where it is. If you placed one simply because you felt the trail needed another, consider whether it actually helps the person following it.

Also check that you’ve collected everything and left the area undisturbed. Good trail marking combines clear communication with responsible use of the outdoors.

Complete the Challenge

To complete Challenge 35, create and follow a trail containing at least eight temporary markers.

Your trail must include a change of direction, and you should test whether the markers can be followed without relying on your memory of the route. Record one improvement you made, or one change you would make if you ran the exercise again.

Photograph your marker system and a section of the finished trail before collecting the markers. Make sure your evidence shows the exercise clearly without leaving anything behind.

How to Submit Your Challenge

Share Your Evidence

1. Go to your SGUK member profile.
2. Open Social Activity.
3. Upload a photograph of your trail markers or your completed route to the activity wall.
4. Add the hashtag #SGUKChallenge35.
5. Share the post for verification.

Include a short description of how you marked the route, how you tested it and what you changed after following it.

Once you’ve shared your evidence and it has been verified, the SGUK Outdoor Skills Challenge 35 is complete and the completed challenges figure will be updated on your profile.

Challenge 35 Checklist

Have You Completed Every Part?

Want to Push Yourself?

Try setting a trail for someone who hasn’t seen the route before. Give them the marker system, but don’t explain the individual placements. Watch where they hesitate and ask for feedback afterwards.

You could also create a return trail using a different marker pattern, then compare which system was easier to follow. If you’re working with a group, take turns laying and following trails so that everyone experiences both sides of the exercise.

For a more advanced navigation session, combine temporary markers with a simple sketch map. Ask the person following the trail to identify landmarks and record their progress as they go. This develops the habit of checking the ground against a wider picture rather than relying entirely on markers.

What’s Next?

If you haven’t already completed the previous challenge, try SGUK Outdoor Skills Challenge 34: Take a Pulse.

That challenge develops a basic first-aid observation skill, while this one builds your ability to communicate a route and navigate using visual clues.

Remember, SGUK Outdoor Skills Challenges can be completed in any order. Choose whichever challenge suits your interests and the skills you want to develop next.

Learn. Practise. Master.

That’s what the SGUK Outdoor Skills Challenge is all about.